Privacy Policy — Blur for WhatsApp Web

Last updated: 7 October 2026

Short version

This extension collects nothing, transmits nothing, and stores nothing about you anywhere except your own browser.

What the extension does

It injects one <style> element into web.whatsapp.com. That stylesheet applies a CSS blur() filter to parts of the chat list and, if you switch it on, to the messages of the open chat.

A few small things support that:

• A keyboard shortcut turns the blur on or off. The browser delivers the key press to a background script, which flips the on/off setting and goes back to sleep.
• A self-check. WhatsApp Web can change its page structure, which would stop the blur without any error. Once per page load the extension checks whether the elements it blurs still exist — a yes/no per element type, never their text. If they don't, the toolbar icon shows a "!" and the popup says so. The result is held in memory for the browser session only.
• The unread count on the toolbar icon. WhatsApp Web writes its unread count into the tab title, e.g. "(3) WhatsApp". The extension reads that number — only the number, nothing else from the title or the page — and shows it as a badge on its toolbar icon, so you can see it from another tab. The number is not stored or sent anywhere. You can switch this off in the popup.
• Blur when idle (always on, no setting). The extension notices that the mouse moved or a key was pressed on the WhatsApp Web tab, only to restart a one-minute timer; when the minute passes without activity it blurs everything again, including a row the pointer is resting on. It never looks at which key was pressed or where the pointer is, and records nothing.
• A link to WhatsApp's own app lock. The popup has a row that takes you to WhatsApp Web's Settings → Privacy → App lock screen. When you click it, the extension opens WhatsApp's settings and clicks those two menu entries for you — nothing else. It does not switch the lock on or off and never sees the password; you do that on WhatsApp's own screen. This is the only time the extension clicks anything on the page, and only when you ask.
• Message translation (off by default; you switch it on in the popup). When the pointer rests on a message, a small translate button appears next to it. Only when you click that button, the text of that one message is read and translated by the translation feature built into your browser (Chrome's Translator and LanguageDetector), which runs on your device. The text is not sent to the extension author or to any server by this extension, and nothing is stored. The result is shown in a card that closes when you click elsewhere, press Esc, or the idle timer fires. The first time you translate into or out of a language, the browser itself downloads that language's model; that download is done by the browser, not by the extension. If your browser does not have these features, the button never appears.
• Translating what you write. When the message box contains text, a second translate button appears beside it. Only when you click it, the text in the box is read and translated on your device in the same way. To pick the target language it also reads the text of the other person's last few messages on screen (to detect their language); nothing is stored or sent. The translation is shown in a card above the box. It enters the message box only if you click "Use"; the extension never presses Enter or the send button, so nothing is ever sent for you. The language you pick for a chat is remembered in memory until the tab closes and is not written anywhere.
• A rating reminder. A few days after you first open the popup it shows a one-line link to the store's rating page, once. For that it stores the date of first use and whether you dismissed the reminder, alongside your settings.
• A donation link. The popup has a "Buy me a coffee" button. It is an ordinary link: nothing is loaded from or sent to buymeacoffee.com unless you click it, and then that site opens in a new tab under its own privacy policy. The button's logo and font are files inside the extension.

Data collection

None. Specifically, the extension does not:

• log or transmit your messages, contacts, phone numbers, or photos
• read the text of any page, with these exceptions: the unread count in the WhatsApp Web tab title, and the message or draft you ask to translate (plus the other person's last few messages, to detect their language), all described above. The self-check only tests whether certain elements are present
• make any network request of any kind
• use analytics, telemetry, crash reporting, or advertising
• use cookies or tracking identifiers
• keep anything running in the background: the background script wakes only for the keyboard shortcut, to switch its toolbar button on for a WhatsApp Web tab, to take you to that tab when you click the button elsewhere, and for the self-check result. It makes no network requests and never reads the address of any tab

The extension has no server. There is no endpoint for data to be sent to.

Data storage

Your display preferences (which elements to blur, blur intensity, and the on/off switch), the date you first used the popup and whether you dismissed the rating reminder are saved with the browser's extension sync storage (storage.sync). The values live in your browser and, if you have your browser's sync feature switched on, follow your signed-in profile through the browser's maker — Google for Chrome, Microsoft for Edge, Mozilla for Firefox. They never reach the extension author. They contain no personal data — only settings such as blurPx: 2 and blurName: false.

The self-check result (ok: true/false and the names of any settings whose elements were not found) and the ID of the tab that last reported an unread count are kept in the browser's session storage (storage.session): in memory only, never written to disk, never synced, and gone when the browser closes.

Uninstalling the extension removes all of it.

Permissions

The extension cannot run on any other website. It requests no host permissions beyond the single content-script match.

Third parties

No data is shared with anyone, because no data is collected.

Source code

The extension ships as plain, unminified source with no build step and no remote code, so everything it does can be inspected directly from the installed package.

Affiliation

This is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to WhatsApp LLC or Meta Platforms, Inc. "WhatsApp" is a trademark of its respective owner and is used here only to describe what the extension works with.

Changes

Material changes to this policy will be published with a new "Last updated" date before taking effect.

Contact

Questions about this policy: use the developer contact details shown on the extension's listing in the store you installed it from.